


Beautiful Thing

by LinksLipsSinkShips



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: College, Coming Out, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-19
Updated: 2018-03-19
Packaged: 2019-04-04 17:41:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14025324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LinksLipsSinkShips/pseuds/LinksLipsSinkShips
Summary: Link isn't acting like himself lately, and Rhett just has to know... what gives?





	Beautiful Thing

**Author's Note:**

> Recommended Listening: Beautiful Thing by Grace VanderWaal

By any standard, the look of Link lying face-down on his bed, sighing heavily into a pillow, wasn’t a good one. But for Rhett, it was particularly worrying. He could remember Link having bad days, but he couldn’t remember him ever looking quite so despondent.

“Homework screwin’ with your head, man?” Rhett asked from the doorway to their shared room. This wasn’t Link’s go-to for the stress that classes brought. Usually he took papers with wrong answers and shot them, basketball-style, into the wastebasket until he felt better. But Rhett couldn’t pinpoint  _ what  _ it was, and that seemed to be the logical starting point for his line of questioning over what was eating his roommate. He’d been a little bit off the past few days and it seemed like it was coming to a head.

Link shrugged his shoulders in response, like he was trying to suggest the answer was yes, but it was clearly a no. Homework wasn’t what was bugging him, but he clearly didn’t want to talk about it. He didn’t move outside of the shrug, instead keeping his face buried like he didn’t want to be seen. It wasn’t his go-to napping pose, either. He wasn’t even under the blanket. Rhett walked over and poked a finger in Link’s ribs.

“Don’t make me wrestle it out of you,” Rhett warned. “I will. It’d be good for you to blow off some steam.” Link didn’t move. “Come on, I won’t even say I’m dead, man. If you need me to be your punching bag or somethin’ just tell me. It’ll help.”

He wasn’t sure if the frustrated groan that escaped from the pillow, from Link, was real or imagined until Link shook his head no. Rhett sat down on the edge of Link’s bed.

“What gives, Link?” He wasn’t going to walk away from his friend when he was struggling this much.

Link took a deep breath and let it out with a heavy sigh. Rhett longed to reach out and smooth his hand over Link’s back, to reassure his best friend that whatever was bothering him wasn’t going to take him down, that he’d be okay regardless of what stress he was facing at the moment. But something told Rhett he shouldn’t, so he folded his hands in his lap and waited. It took a minute or two, but Link shifted and finally repositioned himself next to Rhett, sitting on the edge of the bed with his feet planted on the floor, hands resting on the bed behind him as he leaned back slightly. He looked uncomfortable, then moved to rest his elbows on his knees, back hunched like he was trying to make himself as small as possible in the room.

Rhett nudged his foot against Link’s. “You gonna talk to me or what?”

Link squeezed his eyes closed and sighed heavily again. “I don’t know how to talk to you about it.”

For a few moments, they sat quietly. Link didn’t  _ have  _ to tell Rhett. Rhett would be content to just sit with Link until he felt better. But Link needed to talk. He could sense it. He could feel the sad energy radiating off of his friend.

“I’m not tryin’ to be a smartass or anything, but I’m pretty sure you just open your mouth and put one word after another until you’ve said what you’re trying to say.” Rhett looked at Link out of the corner of his eye and saw him take a slow, deep, shaky breath. Whatever was on his mind was something massive, something he didn’t want to tell Rhett, something that made him feel  _ scared _ .

For long minutes, they sat in silence. Rhett searched Link’s face, and Link searched for the right words to explain what was on his mind.

“What if I tell you and you get mad at me?”

“I’m not going to get mad at you,” Rhett frowned. “I mean, unless you did somethin’ like drop my toothbrush in the toilet or whatever and didn’t tell me. And then I’d probably just tell you to buy me a new one.”

“It’s a lot worse than a toothbrush,” Link smiled sadly.

“Then what  _ is  _ it? I won’t be mad. But I’m gonna be pretty bummed out if you don’t tell me. We tell each other everything!”

“I’m… I’m scared, Rhett.”

Rhett nudged his foot against Link’s again, and this time, Link nudged back. A tear fell from his face onto the floor between his feet, his head overhanging the bed by several inches. Another tear fell and this time, Rhett saw it. Link was crying, worried and upset, wrapping an arm in front of his stomach like it hurt. It was clear by the way he swiped at his eyes with a knuckle, trying to stop the flow of tears. He opened his mouth, then closed it. The sniffling sound he made only made it more obvious he was crying, and Rhett wanted to wrap an arm around him. But he couldn’t do that… it wouldn’t have been “appropriate,” he figured.

Finally, Link took one last heavy, shaky breath. “I’m gay.”

For the longest time, Rhett didn’t say a word. He didn’t know how to explain to Link that he expected whatever he had to say to be a lot worse than that, to be a horrible thing. Instead, he tried to figure out what to say, how to explain that Link’s words changed nothing. Or rather, they changed everything. His best friend was gay? They’d grown up in the same church, listened to the same pastor who condemned all of this, grew up in families who would never accept Link for who he was. And it made it harder for Rhett to say what he needed to, respond to tell Link it would be okay. There was a chance, regardless of what Rhett said, that because of the culture they lived in, it wouldn’t. Rhett reached for Link’s hand, but Link jerked away, like he was afraid the touch would only make everything worse.

“Link, I…” Rhett trailed off, searching for the best way to tell Link what he thought about everything Link had just said. It was a massive confession, one he’d never expected.

“I get it, Rhett. God, if you don’t want to be my friend anymore, I get it. At the semester, I’m sure they’ll let you change rooms if you want. I… I know it’s wrong, but I had to tell you. I can’t keep things a secret from you and… and…” Link choked on tears.

“What the crap, man? I’m not changing rooms!” Rhett jerked to look at Link, furrowing his eyebrows, and Link shrank even more into himself, pulling a knee up onto the bed and hugging it like he was ready to curl into a ball, roll away from the conversation completely. The silence between them was thick with words left unsaid. “It’s… Link, I get it. Okay? I understand. Because… because…” Link was right, all of this was hard to say. “Me, too.” Rhett’s voice cracked as he said the words.

“What?” Link asked, partially because he didn’t hear what Rhett had said, and partially because he heard but knew there was no way Rhett said what Link thought he’d said.

“Do you remember the time we went to the river? You know, when I was late to my game? When the water was super cold and you jumped in?”

“Yeah,” Link responded, lowering his foot to the floor. Rhett nudged it again.

“When you jumped in you disappeared. I was scared, Link. I’ve never been more scared in my whole life. There were so many things we didn’t get to do together and so many things I hadn’t gotten to say to you and so many memories we were never going to have and I panicked. I worried I was going to lose you forever. So I jumped in.”

“I remember,” Link replied quietly.

“I jumped in because I didn’t want to lose you. And when I thought I did, I jumped in because I couldn’t imagine living without my best friend in the whole world.” Rhett stopped and breathed, tried to catch Link’s gaze by ducking his head. “I wouldn’t have done that for my girlfriend, Link. I wouldn’t have done it for anybody but you.”

Link nodded, still unsure of what this had to do with anything at all.

“Link… after that, I… I put together a lot of pieces. Why I would watch you make out with girls at parties, why I’d insist you went on dates with me when I’d ask girls out… it’s because I wanted those things with you and I couldn’t have them.” Rhett was putting it all on the table before realizing that Link hadn’t told Rhett he was interested in him. He’d only said he was gay, not that he was gay  _ and  _ interested in Rhett. But none of that mattered. They both had secrets and now seemed like the right time to share them, so Rhett did.

“What are you trying to say, Rhett?”

“I did it because I love you. Because… because you’re half of me, man. Like… gosh, this is… it’s so cheesy. But you’re like… like... nevermind.”

“No, say it,” Link pressed.

“Like a soulmate or somethin’. If those are even real. I dunno, man.”

Link tried to wrap his brain around everything Rhett had said. Part of him knew that Rhett had said everything and meant what he said, but some small part of Link thought maybe he was misunderstanding it, reading something into the intent that wasn’t there.

“You… you love me?” he clarified. “Like… as a brother or a best friend or somethin’?”

“No, you idiot. Like… like this.” In one quick swoop, Rhett cupped Link’s chin and turned his head so they were facing each other. He leaned in close and kissed Link quickly and softly, then pulled back to make sure Link had the chance to process, and if Link was just confessing he liked guys and  _ not  _ Rhett, to make sure he wasn’t pushing something that wasn’t actually there.

Link’s stunned expression said he wasn’t sure what happened was even real. He blinked, his mouth gaping open, then he got a rosy expression on his face, his cheeks burning red and the tips of his ears catching the full effects of the blush that overtook him. But it made him bolder, the knowledge that things were okay, so he licked his lips and met Rhett’s eyes.

“Sorry, I don’t understand… like what?” Now he was playing coy, and Rhett knew it. It was a ploy for a repeat of what had just happened, and typically Rhett would have called him on it, but all he wanted in this moment was to do it again. So he leaned in, and this time, he let Link close the distance between them. And when Link did, they took their time, lips trying to work out what to do and tongues grazing softly. Rhett could feel Link flick his tongue across his lower lip and Rhett wondered when he’d learned that, because he certainly didn’t know how to do it the last time he’d watched Link, longingly, as he kissed a girl at a party.

But now it  _ was  _ him and now Rhett knew all of Link’s secrets. And Link knew all of his, that for Rhett, it had always been Link.

And for Link, it was always Rhett.


End file.
